Work begins on Bjarke Ingels' pixelated tower in Calgary

Telus Sky Tower will be the home of Telus, a telecommunication company, as well as 320 serviced residences. Renderings courtesy Bjarke Ingels Group

Construction on Calgary’s newest skyscraper, the 66-story Telus Sky Tower, recently broke ground. The building, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), is a 70,000-sm office and residential tower located adjacent to The Bow, a 237-meter-tall office block designed by Foster + Partners, according to Dezeen.

Telus Sky Tower will be the home of Telus, a telecommunication company, as well as 320 serviced residences. Additionally, there will be a 500-sm gallery for local artists and ground-floor retail.

BIG describes its design approach:
The base and bottom floors of the building are clean and rectangular resulting in efficient open office layouts. As the building rises the floor plates slowly reduce in size and pixilate providing opportunities for offices with small balconies and terraces and ultimately results in smaller residential floor plates with balconies. An LED lighting installation will illuminate the tower at night.

We also wanted to embrace the public space around the building, as well as the common space inside. A spectacular double height, glass encased lobby with a vertical atrium and wall garden, and vibrant new retail along Centre Street will create an impressive sense of arrival to Calgary’s best urban environment.

The firm is working with local architecture studio Dialog. Westbank is the project's developer.

The San Bernardino (Calif.) Valley Community College Kinesiology and Athletics Center, designed by HMC Architects. The three-story, 108,509-sf, $69 million facility has two NCAA competition gymasiums. Photo: David Fennema, HMC Architects.